PUNCH TIME: Rasheed Wallace spars with Knicks strength coach David Hancock yesterday, a major part of Wallace's regimen to get into game shape. Photo: MSG Network

Rasheed Wallace is already throwing punches at Knicks training camp, but in a productive way.

Wallace, known for his volatile nature, was on the sidelines yesterday in boxing gloves during the Knicks scrimmage, throwing left-right combinations in a surreal scene.

Wallace is trying to get into better shape so he can scrimmage, and has taken to sparring with the club’s strength coach, David Hancock. It’s better than him sparring with referees, which has been his favorite pastime as the NBA’s career leader in technical fouls. So instead of boxing out, Wallace is boxing.

Wallace has not been cleared to scrimmage because the Knicks’ medical staff feels he could be prone to injury after sitting out two seasons. Coach Mike Woodson said he wasn’t sure if Wallace will be allowed to scrimmage before Thursday’s preseason opener in Washington.

In the past couple of years, the medical staff, spearheaded by cutting-edge medical director Dr. Lisa Callahan, has deemed sparring with gloves as a great tool to getting into basketball shape. Wallace is doing other off-the-court exercises to strengthen his core.

Conventional wisdom would state having Wallace run up and down the court playing basketball would get him in shape, but the Knicks are ahead of the curve.

“It’s all geared for conditioning,’’ Woodson said. “These guys do a lot of different things around here that we didn’t do when we came up the old-school way. It’s all conditioning work to better the player. Eventually we’ll get him out on the floor ready to play.”

* Even though they didn’t get on the court together much during games, Tyson Chandler said the Olympics made he and Carmelo Anthony better friends.

“Personally, Carmelo and I got a lot closer, an understanding of each other’s personalities and what we want to accomplish,’’ Chandler said. “Obviously we wanted to win a gold medal; we were also out there to work on ourselves for the New York Knicks. Every time we had an opportunity to talk and go to the weight room, we did everything together. It made our bond stronger and now we have to bring those leadership qualities to our team.’’

MSG Network’s Knicks coverage begins today when it will telecast the club’s training-camp practice from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., with broadcasters Al Trautwig, Alan Hahn and Tina Cervasio on the scene. The practice will be rebroadcast tonight at 9.